The following thirteen Senators deserve our thanks for courageously voting to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq within the next year:

Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-HI)
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), co-sponsor
Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL)
Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA)
Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI)
Sen. James Jeffords (I-VT)
Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA)
Sen. John Kerry (D-Ma)
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), co-sponsor
Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ)
Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI)
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR).

The following Democratic Senators opposed the withdrawal amendment, showing once more that the notion of a unified, disciplined, and genuinely oppositional party does not exist in this country. Nor is there a major party devoted to peace.

Here is the roll of shame:

Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT)
Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN)
Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE)
Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM)
Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV)
Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA)
Sen. Thomas Carper (D-DE)
Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY)
Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND)
Sen. Mark Dayton (D-MN)
Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT)
Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND)
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD)
Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI)
Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA)
Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI)
Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT)
Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)
Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD)
Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA)
Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL)
Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE)
Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL)
Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR)
Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI)
Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV)
Sen. Ken Salazar (D-CO)
Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D-MD)
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY)
Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)

That Joe Lieberman voted against can hardly be called a shocker. And he willingly fronted for the Republicans, as the website crooksandliars.com points out. They called on him first as their own advocate against the amendment.

Every day Lieberman is becoming more and more like Rabbi Bengelsdorf from Philip Roth’s “Plot Against America.” You know, the one who sucked up to Lindbergh.

And note that even the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid voted against this amendment. That’s leadership?

Even Barack Obama voted against it.

Christopher Dodd, and Joe Biden, and Evan Bayh voted against it.

Hillary Clinton voted against it, too.

All five of them want to be President.

But these are not profiles in courage.

Matthew Rothschild has been with The Progressive since 1983. His McCarthyism Watch web column has chronicled more than 150 incidents of repression since 9/11.

© 2006 The Progressive

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